Like The Great Gatsby, Chicago discusses and showcases the celebrated lifestyles and societal expectations of the Roaring 20's beyond the glitz and glamour of the lavish parties and underground jazz clubs. Both the novel and the film/musical create an atmosphere where corruption is overflowing, drinking is abundant, and sex is an obsession, and yet both capture how magical and unearthly these worlds seem to audiences nowadays. In these worlds, everything is on a grand scale, whether its the glitz of jazz club performers or partygoers or the corruption that's integrated into the management of these clubs or parties. Since The Great Gatsby discusses mostly the upper classes of the 20's and Chicago focuses more on the lower class, average Americans at the time, they can offer a descriptive, broad spectrum of this incredibly fascinating decade when examined together.
Based on a 1926 play of the same name, Chicago is a 1975 Broadway musical turned 2002 movie set in Prohibition-era Chicago. The story centers around two women: Velma Kelley and Roxie Hart. Velma is a Vaudeville performer who gets put in jail for killing her husband and sister after finding out they were having an affair. Roxie is a young woman who cheats on her husband with a supposedly influential man in hope that he will launch her career as a stage performer, but when she finds out he lied to her, she kills him and is sent to jail as well. Both women become celebrities in Chicago for their crimes, but it soon turns into a desperate battle against each other to become more famous. With the help of celebrity lawyer Billy Flynn and Matron "Mama" Morton, their jail matron who believes in reciprocity for her favors, both women get sucked into the twisted, corrupted world of fame in Chicago. When the show first came out, it didn't garner that much popularity because of its dark subtext and cynical criticism of Vaudeville culture, but that is exactly why I love it and why it works so well when used a set of eyes to look deeper into the 1920's.
If we look at the musical song by song, we can see a large variety of observations and criticisms of the society while also getting a sense of the grand theatricality of the decade. The opening song is All That Jazz, where we meet Velma Kelley as she performs at the Annex Club and sings about "living fast and loose" while we also see Roxie getting drunk and committing adultery...and murder. It's very intentional that these two are mirroring each other because the point that John Kander and Fred Ebb, the songwriters, and Bob Fosse, the writer/director, were trying to make is that the 1920's was a time when illegal activity was the most celebrated lifestyle of all. Later on in the story, Billy Flynn is trying to turn Roxie into "the sweetest little jazz killer ever to hit Chicago" by literally puppeteering her to make her say what will sell the most with the news reporters who are looking for some way to turn a crime into a personality. The song that ensues is We Both Reached For The Gun, a very theatrical display intended to reflect the motives of Roxie, Billy, and the reporters. The final song is Nowadays/Hot Honey Rag, where (SPOILER ALERT) Roxie and Velma perform their new act together and sing about how "nothing stays" and the styles are always changing, but "isn't it fun, isn't it...nowadays." That basically sums up the justification for the excessive illegal activity and desperate clawing for fame that is praised so much in this time period: it's fun when it's popular.
Isla Fisher as Myrtle in The Great Gatsby
Now let's look at the parallels between the novel and the musical: Roxie Hart is like Myrtle because both are non-wealthy average Americans who feel stuck in the wrong place and meant to achieve greater things. Both are concerned with gossip and celebrities. Roxie is because she wants to be the gossip, whereas Myrtle is because she wants to show that she can fit in to that upper class culture. Both will do whatever it takes to be a part of this lifestyle that they so long for. Also, Billy Flynn is to Roxie what Tom Buchanan is to Myrtle: a wealthy man of higher status that guides her through the exciting world of the aristocracy and fame. Both of them also have a more wealthy and more famous woman getting in their way as they try to reach the top: Daisy Buchanan for Myrtle and Velma Kelley for Roxie. But the most peculiar parallel between these two characters is that death is their claim to quick fame. Roxie becomes "the sweetest Jazz killer ever to hit Chicago" while Myrtle, when she is killed, gets that fame and recognition she wanted in her life (in the most ironic way possible). But in the end, both of them just had their fifteen minutes of fame and not much else. Roxie can't get an actual stage act, and as people continue talking about Myrtle's death, it seems that the event becomes "less and less real...and Myrtle Wilson's tragic achievement was forgotten" (Fitzgerald 156).
Renee Zellweger as Roxie in Chicago
Possible party guests for Gatsby
Another strong parallel between the two is the attitudes and culture of the people at Gatsby's parties and the general public in Chicago. Both groups emphasize one thing: the flashy, superficial inconstancy of new wealth. Gatsby's parties are, to say the least, extravagant: there are "enough colored lights to make a Christmas tree out of Gatsby's enormous garden" (Fitzgerald 40), full-out orchestras just to show off, and buffets with the most expensive kind of meats anyone can find. However, what's intersting about Gatsby's parties is that they're treated like a business: his Rolls-Royce was described as becoming an "omnibus" and his station wagon was also used to mindlessly transport the guests like a "brisk yellow bug" (Fitzgerald 39). Gatsby didn't have any real relationships with any of his guests since most of them came without even knowing his name. Most of them "came and went like moths" (Fitzgerald 39), women everywhere "never knew each other's names" (Fitzgerald 40), and certain women moved to and from groups, becoming "for a sharp joyous moment the center of the group, and then..glide on" (Fitzgerald 41). While this attitude is common at Gatsby's parties, where the upper class just wants to be entertained for a while, the world that Roxie and Velma live in in Chicago doesn't have the leisure of having a lot of money to spare, so becoming the center of attention seems like what they need to survive this era. However, this culture is very inconstant, as shown when Roxie's trial finishes and, immediately afterwards, another random woman shoots someone and the media runs to her, leaving Roxie behind asking in vain for someone to just take her picture. But in the end, it was all in good fun, because, just like at Gatsby's parties, "oh it's heaven nowadays."
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